Just how unfair is this?
I wrote the above back in 2012, when most of these cases were in deep negative equity and Mary was struggling to meet the full repayments.
But it might not be as unfair as it appeared at first sight.
Here was the situation back in 2012:
The repayments are about €1,200 per month, if the mortgage is at 4%. It would cost Mary €1,200 a month anyway to rent a house.
Here is the situation today:
So although he can still move back in at any time, at least she has not lost out.
If it was a 1% tracker mortgage, the repayments are €900 a month, a lot less than she would be paying to rent a similar house.
And, she has paid off more of the capital, so she is in positive equity.
Brendan